Articulation – What can you do at home?

· Encourage ‘quiet-times’ at home ie. no TV or radio. Encourage your child to listen to quiet sounds eg. the wind blowing, and louder sounds eg. the birds singing.
· Be a good model for your child eg. when he says a word incorrectly say ‘that’s right, that is the cow’. It is important that he feels he is succeeding!
· Sometimes when you are saying a word that he finds difficult, exaggerate and extend the word to make it easier for him to imitate later!

General Rule of Thumb: It is important to begin to work directly on articulation ONLY when your child is combining four and more words to make sentences spontaneously.

Why? Because you want your child to feel that he is already successful using language and then speech activities can be much more fun and less intimidating.

Please refer to the DVD for more direct work on articulation ie. Hannah’s articulation programme.

Unlocking your Child’s Potential, Music is the Key

How can I help my child to be calmer, to listen better, to understand more, to express himself better, learn more and enjoy interacting with other children?

In Unlocking your Child’s Potential, Music is the Key, consultant in speech and language therapy Karen O’Connor describes how children with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, dyspraxia and other developmental challenges make remarkable progress with the help of music-based sound therapy. She describes how these children become more regulated and calmer, how their attention and concentration improve and how language and learning develop.

Children such as three-year old Theo, who came to Karen with a tentative diagnosis of autism, two years later Theo is a fun-loving little boy going to his local school, with no additional support. Or Raphael, who came to see her ‘as a last resort’. He had very little speech and was not interacting with others. Now he’s speaking just like any five-year-old and enjoys playing with his friends.

Unlocking your Child’s Potential, Music is the Key is the first in a series of books that will give hope to parents and children by telling the stories of children like Theo and Raphael who overcame their developmental challenges by means of music-based sound therapy.

Karen O’Connor, has over twenty years of experience of working with children with many developmental challenges.

Speech & Language Therapy: A new way of Learning & Thinking

This exciting and inspiring How-To programme has been developed by Karen O’Connor, specialist in Speech and Language Therapy and director of The Child Development Centre. It is designed for parents and other professionals working with children who have speech and/ or language difficulties. This programme is specifically suited to children of 1-7yrs.

Speech and Language Therapy: A new way of learning and thinking

How can I help my toddler to talk?

My son’s almost three and still not putting words together. What can I do?

My son’s teacher says he needs help with his speech. What can I do at home?

This DVD offers tools to help you to:

Assess your child’s speech and language skills in the comfort of your own home

Develop a home programme of sensory activities to help your child listen and concentrate

Create a home programme of speech and languge activities to develop your child’s skills

Pre- and post-treatment comparison indicated statistically significant differences in the aforementioned skills. These findings suggest that the Tomatis Method of auditory stimulation can be effective as an intervention strategy for APD.

This study investigated the effects of a sensory diet and therapeutic listening intervention program, directed by an occupational therapist and implemented by parents, on children with sensory processing disorders (SPD) and visual–motor delays.

A convenience sample was used of 10 participants, ages 5 to 11 years, with SPD and visual–motor delays. In the first phase, each participant completed a 4-week sensory diet program, then an 8-week therapeutic-listening and sensory diet program.

The Sensory Profile was completed by the participants’ parents before and after both study phases. The Draw-A-Person test, Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI), and Evaluation Tool of Children’s Handwriting (ETCH) were administered before and after each phase.

Over 12 weeks, the participants exhibited significant improvement on the Sensory Profile, increasing a mean of 71 points. Parents reported improvements in their children’s behaviours related to sensory processing.

Scores on the VMI visual and ETCH legibility scales also improved more during the therapeutic listening phase. Therapeutic listening combined with a sensory diet appears effective in improving behaviours related to sensory processing in children with SPD and visual–motor impairments.

This study examined the incidence of extreme sensory modulation behaviors in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and investigated the consistency of sensory information across measures.

Parent report of sensory behaviors in 101 toddlers with ASD was compared with 100 toddlers who were typically developing matched on chronological age and 99 additional infants or toddlers matched on mental age.

Measures included the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile, Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment, Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised, and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Generic. Toddlers with ASD were most distinct from typically developing groups in their high frequency of underresponsiveness and avoiding behaviors and their low frequency of seeking.

Within the toddlers with ASD, there were significant associations across sensory parent report measures, but parent report was not correlated with clinical observation. Findings point to the early onset of an extreme sensory profile in ASD. Occupational therapists need to assess multiple domains of sensory
behaviors to accurately identify the needs of toddlers with ASD.

Validating the Diagnosis of Sensory Processing Disorders Using EEG Technology

CONCLUSION. These results present empirical evidence that children with SPD display unique brain processing mechanisms compared to children who are
typically developing and provide external validity for the diagnosis of SPD.

Administrators in U.S. public school systems are increasingly requiring evidence-based interventions, based on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, as well as the 2004 re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Generating and using evidence is also an essential component of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA’s) Centennial Vision. As a pediatric occupational therapy practitioner in the “trenches” in a school or a clinic, you are probably excited about contributing to and participating in research through active data collection.

Although data collection is extremely rewarding, it does have some challenges. In this article I present issues to ponder so you can be successful, and contribute to evidence-based practice (EBP).

Not Too Old For Sensory Integration

By Diana A. Henry, MS, OTR/L

In 1972, when Dr. A. Jean Ayres first defined the sensory integration (SI) process as “the ability to organize sensory information for use”, her research focused on identifying specific subtypes or patterns of dysfunction among children. Unfortunately, the emphasis placed on the plasticity of the young brain has been incorrectly interpreted by some to mean that individuals older than age 7 can no longer benefit from sensory integrative intervention. As clinicians, we can now turn to a scholarly and newly published textbook, Sensory Integration. Theory and Practice (1991), and find the following:

Sensory Integration: It’s Not Just For Children

“…We believe that the sensory integration framework can be a useful lens for interpreting behaviors and a guide for implementing strategies to enhance occupational performance in clients across the lifespan… This article makes a case that because humans are sensory beings and sensation is inherent in all occupations, the sensory integration framework is relevant to occupational therapy practice beyond pediatric…”Authors: Renee Watling, PhD, OTR/L, Stefanie Bodison, MA, OTR/L, Diana A. Henry, MS, OTR/L, CWT, and Heather Miller-Kuhaneck, MS, OTR/L, BCPPublished: 12/2006 in the AOTA SI SIS Quarterly

Sensory Processing Disorders: Through The Eyes Of Dysfunction

Have you ever wondered what children or adults with sensory processing disorders feel like, or have to deal with?
I certainly have.Now I would like to give you the opportunity to see SPD “through the eyes of dysfunction”. This can, in turn, lead to acceptance, understanding, and avoidance of blame and judgment. Please open your hearts and minds to the struggles individuals with sensory processing disorders go through on a daily basis.We can see the behavioral signs of distress with too much input, or the energy of not enough input. But, what does the child/adult really go through while trying to take in and effectively process the bombardment of daily sensory input? Stanley Greenspan, the author of ” The Challenging Child ” (1995) has an insightful analogy to help us understand what people experience when they can not effectively process, or interpret, sensory input. He describes it this way:

“Imagine driving a car that isn’t working well. When you step on the gas the car sometimes lurches forward and sometimes doesn’t respond. When you blow the horn it sounds blaring. The brakes sometimes slow the car, but not always. The blinkers work occasionally, the steering is erratic, and the speedometer is inaccurate. You are engaged in a constant struggle to keep the car on the road, and it is difficult to concentrate on anything else.”

It’s no wonder children with sensory processing disorders feel out of control, exhibit a whole host of behaviors, and have difficulty concentrating and focusing at school! Now, also imagine being a parent of one of these children. Many parents have expressed how exhausted, rejected, lost, incompetent and alone they feel in trying to live with, and understand, their child.

I challenge you to remember this beautifully painful quote the next time you encounter a child with sensory processing disorders and begin the process of awareness, understanding, and treatment to help them take control of their bodies, minds and self-esteem. It is so very difficult for them. Let’s acknowledge that and do our best to understand and help them!

Let me put this another way for you, from an adult perspective. I once did a presentation in a conference room full of adults that worked in day care and preschool settings. I wanted them to relate to and understand the children they saw in their classrooms that struggled with sensory processing disorders. I explained it to them this way…

: A Story for Kids about the Tough Day When Filibuster Grabbed Darwin’s Rabbit’s Foot and the Whole Family Ended Up in the Doghouse–An … Introduction to Sensory Processing Disorder (Hardcover)Rby Carol Stock Kranowitz (Author), T. J. Wylie (Illustrator)